The Tech Museum of Innovation in San Jose: The Star Wars Exhibit

The Tech Museum of Innovation in San Jose: The Star Wars Exhibit

The Tech Museum of Innovation in San Jose’s current special exhibit is Star Wars: Where Science Meets Imagination through the end of February. Star Wars themed things usually disappoint me, as a die-hard, and old school Star Wars fan, so I was happily impressed with this exhibit. There are lots of original models, costumes and props from the movies. The models are very impressive, even by our more modern standards. I could really get on a much deeper level than I did before why they had been so groundbreaking back in the 70’s and 80’s.

The hands on activities are a lot of fun too. We experimented with magnetic lego hovercrafts, droids that needed to move across uneven ground, and lots of others. There is also a real (although small) hovercraft to ride on. The exhibit was not very busy when we were there, our group was the first in of the day, and we still had to work our way in to a spot for some activities. I can easily imagine that on a crowded day it could be tough to get a turn, although I do believe they limit entrances to the special exhibits to keep crowds under control.

Within in the larger Star Wars exhibit there is what they call the Millennium Falcon experience. It is an additional small cost. Basically, you get to enter a wonderful replica of the bridge of the Millennium Falcon where you watch a 4 ½ minute video through the cockpit window about our real universe and all the planets and galaxies that have been discovered. The actual video wasn’t anything too thrilling, but the Millennium Falcon was fun. There were even some switches to flip, although most of the buttons were fake, and couldn’t be pushed, I found one that was pushable. And, most importantly, it does the jumping into hyperspace bit at the beginning of the video. Still, if getting to sit in the Falcon isn’t worth five bucks to you, then skip this extra bit. There is only seating for four inside, and it runs nearly five minutes. So you can imagine that could lead to quite a wait. For example, we were in the first group into the Star Wars exhibit, and had about a 40 minute wait for our turn in the Millennium Falcon. I do have to give kudos to the staff for their solution to the wait. You can leave a cell number and get a text when your turn is up. So you don’t have to stand in line the whole time.

The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate – Book Review

The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate – Book Review

The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate with Illustrations by Patricia Castelao was a surprising hit recently with our book club. From our youngest member, at 6 years old, to the elementary kids, the young teen, and even the parents all were enthusiastic and excited for our discussion. It was one of the most positive responses we’ve had to any of our titles so far.

I believe it works so well for so many different ages and people because it has subtle layers. The story is told from the point of view of Ivan, a gorilla who lives in a roadside mall arcade attraction. He doesn’t like to remember things, and so he doesn’t dwell too deeply on any of the issues or events that come up, but for all the simplicity of how events are told, there is still an emotional power to them.

For our youngest member, it was a straightforward story of Ivan and his quest to keep a promise. For the older members of our group, we could see beyond the simpler story to the bigger internal struggles that many of the characters fought with as Ivan describes their actions.

Another aspect that gave the book an additional level of interest is that Ivan was a real gorilla. He did in fact live at a roadside animal attraction, was originally captured with his twin sister, and spark the community to work for his release to a better home. Although I believe, the rest of the actual events of the story are fictional. The real Ivan eventually was moved to the Atlanta Zoo where he lived out the rest of his life. The zoo website has a nice page about his life: http://www.zooatlanta.org/ivan

Happy Fourth of July!

Happy 4th of July everyone!
I hope you will have a great day having fun with your families.

If you are looking for some last minute ideas of things to do today, I can suggest my Sunday post about 4th of July events going on around the Bay Area today:
http://cabayareakids.blogspot.com/2013/06/fireworks-displays-around-bay-area-2013.html

Or, if you want fun stuff to do at home, you can check out my most recent "Fun Stuff to Do Anywhere" posts for some ideas:
http://cabayareakids.blogspot.com/search/label/Do%20Anywhere

The regular Book Review will be here next week instead. Have fun!

Low Cost Summer Movies for Kids 2013

Low Cost Summer Movies for Kids 2013

This year, in my Summer Movie research, I only found two theater chains that are offering cheap summer movie programs. Both of these offer their movies on Tuesdays and Wednesdays at 10am. Tickets are $1.00 per person – adults and children are the same price.

Cinemark Summer Movie Clubhouse starts June 18^th and 19^th

They also offer a 10 movie pass for $5

Check the link for the schedule of the theater near you – each one appears to offer different titles.

http://www.cinemark.com/summer-movie-clubhouse

Regal Summer Movie Express

Each participating theater has different start dates. Some start as soon as June 4^th, others begin June 18^th.

There are two movies to choose from each week, usually one G choice, and one PG choice.

http://www.regmovies.com/Movies/Summer-Movie-Express

If there is a chain or independent theater near you offering summer movie deals for kids, please let us know in the comments!

Make Flowers Change Colors - Fun Stuff To Do Anywhere

Make Flowers Change Colors - Fun Stuff To Do Anywhere

While studying plants recently, we decided to try the age-old flower dying experiment. Although we didn't have as much success as we have had in the past (when my oldest did this same experiment), we are still starting to see some color change, and the kiddo had fun with it.

All you do is add some food coloring to a vase of water, then add your flowers. White flowers tend to work the best - make sure to give then a fresh cut stem before putting them into the colored water. Although, kids will often use a celery stalk as well. I think it's better if there are some leaves still on the celery as opposed to the pre-cut ones.

This experiment shows how plants pull water up through their stems into their petals
 and leaves.

Free Summer Bowling for Kids

Free Summer Bowling for Kids

Many bowling alleys around the Bay Area offer free bowling for kids over the summer. To find out if there is a bowling alley near you, visit https://www.kidsbowlfree.com/all_centers.php .

We have personally not tried this program yet, but our closest bowling alley starts their free summer games for kids in May, so we will be signing up and trying it out. I’ll report how it goes for us.

In the past, we tried signing our kids up for a local bowling alley’s discounted summer kids program, but found it wasn’t a good fit for our kids. They had advertised bowling instruction would be included, but that wasn’t really the case. Most of the other kids there really knew their stuff, and our kids felt overwhelmed and confused.

However, I was in a summer bowling league as child in my pre-teen years and it was a lot of fun for me and I learned a bunch. So every alley and every program is going to be slightly different. If there are no free summer games offered for kids at a bowling alley near you, check with your local place and see what other summer or discounted programs they may offer. Most will have something going on for kids over the summer.

Cook Together - Fun Stuff to Do Anywhere

Cook Together - Fun Stuff to Do Anywhere

I've had other topics about cooking specific foods together with your kids, but this one is more general. This is to encourage you to have your kids help make dinner. Small kids especially want to 'help' with cooking. The problem is that there may not be a lot they can safely do in the kitchen if they aren't ready or old enough to handle knives or bee near the hot stove.

There is still a lot they can do to help, but you need to think ahead because the non-cutting, non-hot stuff parts of cooking may be things we do without thinking about it in preparation to do the real cooking. For example, my 5 year old loves to break apart the broccoli to get it ready for steaming. Washing vegetables is a great job for small kids. maybe measuring something, even if they need to hand it to you to actually put it into the pot (and you can take a quick peek to double check. Stirring batter is usually safe as well.

Older kids who can be trusted with more dangerous kitchen jobs could be put in charge of a side dish.

I tend to be tired and somewhat cranky at the end of the day when it is dinner cooking time, but when I ask my kids to help out, even though it makes the kitchen crowded, it is always surprisingly fun to cook together.

Carmel Mission: San Carlos Borromeo De Carmelo – Outside the Bay

In our continued exploration of California History for 4^th grade, we recently visited Mission San Carlos Borromeo De Carmelo, also known as Mission Carmel near Monterrey.

The mission is currently undergoing restoration, so some parts were unavailable for us to view. Still, our 4^th grader really liked looking at one of the places she has been reading so much about. I was disappointed by how many beautiful and interesting looking artifacts were completely unlabeled or marked in any way to explain what we were seeing. It's possible that this might also be partially due to the restoration going on, if things have been moved around, but I'm just speculating.

One area that had good signage and better descriptions was a series of reproductions of small rooms that various people would have lived in during the early days of the mission.

We happened to visit on a day when they were not charging admission. While we all enjoyed ourselves, and are happy we went, I think I would have not been happy spending the usual admission price for the short time we spent looking around. Still, we made a purchase from the gift shop to support the restoration efforts, and if you find yourself in the area, and are interested in California history, it is easy to get to, and pretty to view.

Our kiddo is working on building her own model mission. She chose to build Mission San Rafael Archangel and we hope to take her to visit that mission as well. If you would like to find a historical California Mission closer to you to visit, you can find a list of California Missions here.

Start a Garden – Fun Stuff to do Anywhere

Start a Garden – Fun Stuff to do Anywhere

If you started some seeds indoor earlier in the year, they are probably ready to move outside either into the ground, or into larger pots.

We have never lived in a house with a yard big enough for a garden in the ground. So I have become a good container gardener over the years. So if all you have is a small apartment patio or balcony, you can still create a little garden to grow stuff with your kids.

We have grown tomatoes, potatoes, bell peppers, broccoli, peas, herbs, flowers, zucchini, cantaloupe, strawberries, and blueberries in pots over the years. The bigger plants may need pretty large containers to grow well in, but it can be done. Pick a few of your favorite fruits or veggies, and start growing! For tomatoes, or vine-y or sprawling plants like cantaloupe or zucchini, I find that cages help the plant to grow without sprawling out of the pot and breaking the stems.

It isn't too late in the year if you want to start from seed. You can start indoors, or right outside if you want. If you'd rather get more of a running start at your garden, lots of plant centers have good sales this time of year on seedlings.

Each plant will have it's own slightly different requirements about how much sun and water and spacing they like, so just follow the instructions that come with your plant or seed packet, and watch your garden grow.

Play a Card Game – Fun Stuff To Do Anywhere

Play a Card Game – Fun Stuff To Do Anywhere

Playing a card game with your kids can have multiple benefits. You get some good fun together time, and hopefully some conversation too, but additionally, many card games are great for math practice.

Simple card games like 'Go Fish' or 'War' are good to play with younger children. Then games like 'Twenty-one' or 'Cribbage' can introduce some simple strategy and mental addition. There are literally hundreds of card games out there.

There are great books full of games, or pagat.com has rules for a slew of games too.

Put Together a Jigsaw Puzzle – Fun Stuff To Do Anywhere

Put Together a Jigsaw Puzzle – Fun Stuff To Do Anywhere

I remember putting puzzles together with my mother when I was small, but for some reason I never thought about doing it with my own kids until recently. They did simple 25 piece, then 50 piece puzzles as preschoolers on their own and loved them. Often they would put the same puzzle together over and over again. But when they moved on to 100 piece, they did one or two and stopped. I thought they had outgrown puzzles, but now I think it was something else.

I think they hit a point where the puzzles were more challenging and they became intimidated. We did a 500 piece puzzle together, and in the beginning they acted discouraged before we’d even really begun. Once the boarder was put together, and some other small parts had been assembled enough to be recognizable, their enthusiasm for the project grew. Every piece placed was a tiny celebration.

We didn’t try to put it together all in one sitting, or even all in one day. I think that would have been more than they could take. But we ended up having a lot of fun, and I look forward to another group jigsaw puzzle again soon, although some puzzles at the store have gotten pricey in my opinion, but sales and thrift stores, and garage sales are great places to pick a puzzle up if you want totry one out without spending much to start.

Sutter's Fort – Outside the Bay

Sutter's Fort – Outside the Bay

Another great spot to visit for kids interested in California history is Sutter's Fort in Sacramento. Many of the rooms of the fort have been restored to demonstrate their original purpose. The fort isn't large, and we took our time exploring and reading signs, even revisiting spots that the kids wanted to go back and see again, and still finished in les than two hours.

Our kids liked being in charge of the map and looking up the purpose of various areas of the fort. There is also a lot of open space in the center of the fort for little legs that need to let out some energy in running around before they can pay attention to the history again.

Admission is $5 for adults and $3 for children, and kids under 5 are free. The State Indian Museum is on the same grounds as Sutter's Fort, just outside the fort gates, and I believe a discount pass can be purchased if you plan to visit both places. We did not go into the State Indian Museum, but would like to go back to do so.

In addition to Sutter's Fort, our kids wanted to spend some time at the walkway and pod next to the fort. The pond is home to ducks (there were baby ducklings when we visited) and turtles and squirrels, and the kids did not seem to tire of watching the animals.

Letterboxing – Fun Stuff to Do Anywhere

Letterboxing – Fun Stuff to Do Anywhere

After last week's introduction to geocaching, I thought this week, I should introduce geocaching's low-tech predecessor: letterboxing.

Geocaching and letterboxing share a lot in common. The idea for both is to go out into the world, often into nature, and find the hidden container. In geocaching, there will be a logbook, and possibly some swag for trade in the container. In letterboxing, there will be a logbook and a stamp. You can bring your own stamp to mark the logbook with, or just write your name, and you can use the stamp in the letterbox to mark your own book to show you made the find. You should not trade or take anything from a letterbox.

The benefits of letterboxing is that no special technology is required (other than looking the letterbox up online before leaving home.) Instead of GPS coordinates, letterboxing uses landmarks and more old-fashioned treasure hunting terms. For example you could be instructed to find a particularly noticeable tree, and go ten paces to the north, then turn right, and so on.

The downside of letterboxes is that there are far fewer of them around than geocaches. The website we've used is www.letterboxing.org, but we've only found two letterboxes. If you are an experienced letterboxer, and have other online resources you can share, please do so in the comments.

Pleasant Hill Park – Pleasant Hill

Pleasant Hill Park – Pleasant Hill

Pleasant Hill Park is located just off highway 680 on Gregory Lane in Pleasant Hill. Pleasant Hill Park has some great features that make it one of our favorites to visit if we're in the area.

There are three structured play areas. One is for older kids and has a traditional jungle gym, and a few other spinning sorts of pieces of equipment. There is also a separate gated off toddler play area with smaller equipment for the littler ones. In between these two areas is a sandy play area with a strange sort of low climbing tunnel structure that my kids love. There is also a digging contraption in the sad area, but of course you can bring your own sand toys to enjoy there as well.

Even when I had a child that was young enough to use the toddler play area, we didn't use it much. It is great if you only have very young children, as the fence will keep them from running off when your back is turned, but if you also have older children, it is very difficult to see the other play area well from the toddler area.

In addition to the play structures, there is a good amount of open grass, and sidewalks. There is usually some biking as scootering going on along the sidewalks when we visit.  Also, some basketball courts, and swings are available some distance from the rest of the playground.

In the summer, I like that there are lots of mature trees all around the Pleasant Hill Park, so finding a shady spot to sit and rest is not a problem. There are three reservable picnic areas, and two open picnic areas. We did do a birthday party at Pleasant Hill Park once and were able to claim one of the open areas to set up for cake, etc. without too much trouble, but availability will vary every weekend I would expect.

There is street parking available right on Gregory Lane, but when that is full, there is a parking lot adjacent to the park where I have never failed to find a space.

Geocaching – Fun Stuff to Do Anywhere

Geocaching – Fun Stuff to Do Anywhere

I've wanted to write a post about geocaching for a while now, but couldn't decide where to put it. I can certainly be done almost anywhere in the Bay Area, but I think it could deserve it's own full review like the Thursday activities get. So, I decided to do both.

This week will be just a quick introduction to geocaching, and in a future week, I'll write a more expansive post with ideas to take you deeper into the hobby of geocaching.

Basically, geocacaching is a treasure hunting game played with a GPs device, and the website geocaching.com. There are other websites as well, but this is the main, and most popular one as far as I know. The website offers a few different ways to search for nearby caches. You can enter an address and get a list of geocaches close by. I personally like the 'search on the map' function. It gives me better information about where a cache is than just how many miles from the entered address.

Not all geocaches are kid or family appropriate. There are a number of different attributes that can be added to each cache listing to describe it. For your few outings, you may want to look for caches that are labeled as "kid friendly" or listed as "beginner" caches. I've hunted for caches along busy roads and other places I wouldn't have wanted to take my children. That's another reason to check out the map on geocaching.com before heading out to your hunt – make sure it is an area you'll all feel safe.

Luckily, most are very family friendly. If you have a popular walking trail near you home, or park, or regional open space, there are great odds there will be several geocaches there for you to find.

What my kids like best, is the swag. If you are looking for a cache labeled 'small' or larger, then there may be small toys, coins or other little items inside. If you bring small items to trade, you can put in your item, and take some other trinket out of the cache. My kids have traded for things like beads, rubber bouncy balls or matchbox cars. Try to keep the trades fair, so the next kids to come along have something fun to pick out too.

We have a hand held geocaching GPS, but you can geocache with just a smartphone ap if you don't have a GPS. (Car GPS devises don't work well for geocaching). Geocaching.com has their own ap that costs $10, but I have used and like c:geo, and it is free. You do need to go to geocaching.com and sign up there for an account first to use c:geo and some of the other free geocaching aps out there.

If you're ready to get started, the geocaching.com website can walk you through finding your first cache. Otherwise, I'll be back with even more geocaching fun for you and your family another week.

NASA Ames Research Center at Moffett Field

NASA Ames Research Center at Moffett Field

NASA Ames Research Center has an Visitor Center Museum that is free to the public and open Tuesdays through Fridays from 10am to 4pm, and Weekends from Noon to 4pm. They are closed on Mondays and Federal holidays.

Even though the museum looks small, my daughter and I spent the hour we had available there, and could easily have spent more time if we'd been able. It isn't that there is so very much to see, but many of the exhibits are interactive, and includes some games that she wanted to spend considerable time on. I eventually had to pull her away so we didn't miss our tour.

Fortunately, there is also a free website where they offer very similar games, if slightly simpler,  to the ones she enjoyed at the NASA Visitor Center. It is at: http://www.scigames.org/

From their website, it sounds as if the exhibits in the Visitor Center change on a fairly regular basis. If you visit the NASA Ames Visitor Center web page you can also see a schedule of events and presentations that happen throughout the day so you can time your visit accordingly if there is something your family would be interested in.

The NASA Ames research Center also offers free school and homeschool group tours. That was the main reason we made the trip there. We just stopped to check out there Visitor Center since we made it to Mountain View so early, and I'm glad we did. The Visitor Center would have been closed at the end out our field trip, and it was well worth the time we spent there.

Although I did not set up the field trip myself, I was lead to understand that setting one up is more complex than other field trips might be. Moffett Field is a working NASA research center and they take security seriously. I believe the mom who organized our group had some hoops to jump through, and as a chaperone  I had to make sure I had registered with our group appropriately, and had my identification all in order. Despite all of this, the trip was amazing and wonderful. When my youngest child is old enough, I would not hesitate to put in the work needed to set up a tour for her. And, on the plus side, it was all free.

The trip is aimed at kids in 4th through 6th grades. They get to do a lot of hands on guided lessons. They even did two mini 'missions' that involved assigned age-appropriate research tasks, and communicating their finding to the rest of their crew.

Information about how to set up a field trip is also available at the same link for the Visitor Center.

Stomp Rockets - Fun Stuff to Do Anywhere

Stomp Rockets - Fun Stuff to Do Anywhere

Since we have had such beautiful weather lately, it's been nice to get outside. Stop Rockets are a great outdoor, park going activity.

Stomp rockets work by forcing air up a tube into the hollow inside of the rocket and launching it into the air when the end of the tube is 'stomped' on. There are a lot of different brands that can be found at hobby shops or toy stores.

Kids love rockets, at least, every kid I've ever met. I'm sure there are some out there somewhere that don't. It takes them a long time to get tired of stomping. Then there's all that running after the fallen rockets to retrieve them, which is great exercise.

There is even a little bit of science and experimentation involved as they try stomping harder of softer and adjust the angle to see what will happen.

We have the rockets pictured below. I like them because they don't go too high, and are safe to use in our local park. I also found a book about how to make your own. That sound like a lot of fun too!

Attend an Event at your Local Library - Fun Stuff to do Anywhere

Attend an Event at your Local Library

Nowadays, every library system has a website including a calendar of events. I’ve found these calendars sometimes cumbersome to use however, and some events I know are happening, I have been unable to find on the calendar. So while the website for your local library is a good starting place to look for these fun sorts of events, a visit to the actual library branch you like to go to is even better. Most will have fliers listing all their upcoming events for the next month or even next several months. While you’re there, you can also then sign up for any event that requires registration to attend. 

There is a whole lot more to do at your local library than just check out books or attend a storytime. At the various placed we’ve lived around the Bay Area, we have attended all sorts of wonderful events at different libraries: movies, holiday parties, or holiday themed crafting events, special performances from magicians, comedians, or actors, author and illustrator talks, wild animal shows, and police dog demonstrations.

Nowadays, every library system has a website including a calendar of events. I’ve found these calendars sometimes cumbersome to use however, and some events I know are happening, I have been unable to find on the calendar. So while the website for your local library is a good starting place to look for these fun sorts of events, a visit to the actual library branch you like to go to is even better. Most will have fliers listing all their upcoming events for the next month or even next several months. While you’re there, you can also then sign up for any event that requires registration to attend. 

Sutter’s Mill in Coloma – Outside the Bay

Sutter’s Mill in Coloma – Outside the Bay

We have a 4^th grader in our family this year, and in our adventures to explore the traditional 4^th grade topic of California History we have wandered to areas that extend beyond the Bay Area. Still I wanted to share the places we visited for anyone who may want to make similar trips.

A big part of California history is the Gold Rush. We visited the site of Sutter’s Mill, in Marshall Gold Discovery Park, where gold was first discovered in California. Many of the buildings are reproductions, but I think the kids got more out of that than they would have by looking at ruins or something they couldn’t tell what it once was.

They have a small museum that didn’t take us more than 20 to 30 minutes to walk through, and that was at a dawdling pace, but the kids enjoyed much more than I expected them to. We went into the museum right after we finished panning for gold at the shack just across the road from the museum. The gold panning was more difficult than the kids had expected, although the instructor was very helpful and patient in helping everyone perfect their technique. Perhaps their own gold panning experience helped them appreciate the replicas of some of the gold nuggets retrieved from the river in the early days of the gold rush.

Beyond the museum and reconstructed mill and surrounding buildings, Marshall Gold Discovery Park also has hiking trails. We happened to visit on an unusually hot day, so we didn’t wander far from the historical displays, but it is an option during your trip. There were also many picnic tables available for a nice picnic lunch.

The Marshall Gold Discovery Park website mentions there being folks dressed up in period outfits there as well. We didn’t see anything like that on our visit, so perhaps they aren’t there every day. The volunteers and rangers we met were all a wealth of information and friendly, but were all dressed in uniforms or regular modern clothes.

Plant Seeds Inside – Fun Stuff To Do Anywhere

Plant Seeds Inside – Fun Stuff To Do Anywhere

This is a good time of year here in Northern California to start some seeds indoor for your spring garden. We are still having frequent frosts overnight in many places around the Bay Area, but when you start your seeds indoors, they can germinate in the indoor protected environment, and you will have nice big seedlings ready to go into the garden later in the spring.

Kids love planting seeds too, and watching them grow. There are lots of inexpensive kits you can find for starting seeds indoors: small seed cups or plastic trays for miniature indoor greenhouses. If you don’t want to mess with getting a kit, just use a regular pot that fits on a sunny window in your home, and cover it with saran wrap until your seeds sprout.

For indoor seed starting, you want to plant things that can be transplanted outdoors later on. We like to start tomatoes, bell peppers, peas and beans, squash, and melons inside. Smaller vegetables that don’t transplant well, like green onions, radishes, and carrots we will wait and plant directly into the garden later in the spring.